Latest Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies Stories
HARRISBURG, Pa., Nov. 29, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Pennsylvania Game Commission officials, joined by veterinarians and laboratory technicians from the Pennsylvania and U.S. departments of Agriculture, will continue their efforts, starting Nov. 29, to sample thousands of hunter-killed deer to determine whether chronic wasting disease (CWD) has come to the Commonwealth. "For nearly a decade, we have tested hunter-killed deer, and have not found or confirmed any cases of...
The brain damage that characterizes Alzheimer's disease may originate in a form similar to that of infectious prion diseases such as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (mad cow) and Creutzfeldt-Jakob, according to newly published research by The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth). "Our findings open the possibility that some of the sporadic Alzheimer's cases may arise from an infectious process, which occurs with other neurological diseases such as mad cow and...
Finding opens possibility of treating brain-wasting mad cow disease In a new study NYU School of Medicine researchers report that they have found several chemical compounds, including an antidepressant, that have powerful effects against brain-destroying prion infections in mice, opening the door to potential treatments for human prion diseases. The researchers, led by Thomas Wisniewski, MD, professor of neurology, pathology and psychiatry, report their findings in today's online...
Children who received pituitary growth hormone treatments after 1977, when scientists started purifying them, are less likely to develop Creutzfeldt - Jakob disease (CJD) than those who received earlier, unpurified treatments, a team of researchers has discovered. The authors of the study, which was published in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM) earlier this month, were looking to provide updated CJD information to prior U.S. National Hormone and Pituitary...
A person's ability to battle viruses at the cellular level remarkably resembles the way deadly infectious agents called prions misfold and cluster native proteins to cause disease, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers report.This study marks the first discovery of so-called "good" prion-like proteins in human cells and the first to find such proteins involved in innate immunity: the way the body recognizes and responds to threats from viruses or other external agents, said Dr....
Maryland CWD Containment Area added to list of states impacted by Pennsylvania's parts ban HARRISBURG, Pa., Aug. 8, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- With thousands of Pennsylvania hunters heading off to hunt big game in other states and Canadian provinces, Pennsylvania Game Commission Executive Director Carl G. Roe reminds hunters that, in an effort to prevent the introduction of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) into the Commonwealth, the agency prohibits hunters from importing specific carcass...
It's a chicken and egg question. Where do the infectious protein particles called prions come from? Essentially clumps of misfolded proteins, prions cause neurodegenerative disorders, such as mad cow/Creutzfeld-Jakob disease, in humans and animals. Prions trigger the misfolding and aggregation of their properly folded protein counterparts, but they usually need some kind of "seed" to get started.Biochemists at Emory University School of Medicine have identified a yeast protein...
University of Tennessee molecular biophysics professor reveals a key trigger to a rare but deadly neurodegenerative diseaseJeremy Smith, Governor's Chair for Molecular Biophysics at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, has helped reveal a key trigger of Gerstmann"“Sträussler"“Scheinker (GSS) syndrome, a rare but deadly neurodegenerative disease. The finding could have far-reaching implications for the treatment of other neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's, Huntington's,...
Unlocking the mechanisms that cause neurodegenerative prion diseases may require a genetic key, suggest new findings reported by University of Illinois at Chicago distinguished professor of biological sciences Susan Liebman.Prions can turn a normal protein into a misfolded form. One prion in mammals promotes progressive neurodegenerative disorders like "mad cow" disease that often prove fatal. But how this process happens remains an open question for scientists.Prions have been...
(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have examined the potential for human exposure to prion diseases, looking at hunting, venison consumption, and travel to areas in which prion diseases have been reported in animals. Three prion diseases in particular "“ bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE or "Mad Cow Disease"), variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), and chronic wasting disease (CWD) "“ were specified in the...
